


Ad Astra Per Aspera

by CycloneRachel



Category: DCU (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: (inspired especially by No Justice issues 3 and 4), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Headcanon, Heavy Angst, One Shot, crossover-ish, spoilers for No Justice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-04 22:01:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16797871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: Some things are best left not known.However, there are times when knowing can't be avoided.





	Ad Astra Per Aspera

It’s strange, not knowing parts of one’s own planet’s history.

While it was true that Earth suffered the most catastrophic destruction in 2455, that phenomenon also affected many other planets- including Querl’s. And, despite the best efforts of the Coluans who rebuilt their planet and all the information it housed, some things were simply lost to time, with nobody to fill in the gaps.

(Or perhaps the issue was not availability, but arrogance- that some people may have remembered, but simply refused to acknowledge it. That they didn’t want to remember they had failed, once.

After all, it wasn’t going to happen again. Thus, it would be irrelevant for future generations to learn, as they had no need to prepare for another event of that nature)

(At least, as far as they knew)

Lost information- such as, for example, what happened to it in the year 2018- that’s perhaps best left forgotten, or not learned at all.

~

“Alex?” Brainy asks, tentatively.

She’s still surprised to see him sitting in Winn’s chair. It’s been a few weeks since he left, and it isn’t something she can get used to. She misses his voice, his laugh, his dorky sweaters and cardigans that were technically against uniform regulation. She misses _him_ \- her friend, her constant companion.

(He wasn’t her sidekick. He might’ve thought of himself that way, but he wasn’t. He was too good for that position, even if she would never say it to his face)

(Alex knows she wouldn’t give up Kara, if given the choice, even when her sister first arrived on Earth. But, hypothetically speaking, if she was, and she’d received a brother instead, she would’ve liked him to be like Winn.

Not that she doesn’t treat him like a little brother already. Even though he’s older than her. It’s just a situation she’s thought about, and that she’s already come to a conclusion on)

“Yeah, Brainy?” she says. “What is it?”

He turns his chair towards her as he looks up at her, voice quiet.

“I… know this is a personal request, and thus improper at the moment.” He answers. “But… I wish to see Colu.”

“Your home planet.” Alex answers. She remembers hearing that name only once, when J’onn debriefed the DEO about Indigo, and her origin. She doesn’t know what it’s like, so she can’t judge it completely, but she still looks at him uneasily. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I will not be contacting it.” He says. “I only… it is a matter of curiosity. I wish to see what it was like, in this time.”

( _He’s still using past tense,_ she notes. She wonders how long it’ll take for that to change)

“Alright.” Alex says. “Alright. Go ahead.”

“Right now?”

Alex nods, and he starts searching. She can barely keep track of his hands, as they practically fly across the keyboard while he brings up maps, cross-references charts, plugs in coordinates, until he finally finds it.

“I’ve got it!” he says. “The location of Colu.”

But when Alex glances at the screen, she sees only ruins.

Wreckage, scattered where a planet should be. Floating in space.

Nothing and nobody else in sight.

“Wait.” He says, blinking. “That cannot be right.”

He brings up another screen, looking at his charts again.

“I… I did not think… how can this…” he starts. “It’s… it’s _gone_.”

Alex places a hand on his shoulder, as he searches for answers, shoulders slumping in disappointment.

“An unprecedented invasion.” He states. “Catastrophic destruction. Almost incomprehensible forces… many of my people evacuated, and eventually rebuilt the planet once they figured out how to reconstitute the cosmic energy that resulted from the destruction into a working core.”

“Well, hey, you’re still here.” Alex says. “And your planet does get put back together.”

“It does.” He agrees, not able to take his eyes off its ruins. “But… here and now… it has still ceased to exist.”

“Sorry.” She says. She doesn’t know what else to say, after seeing something like that.

~

Later, after it sinks in, he goes up to the roof of the DEO, and looks up at the stars.

He thinks of his people, and how some of them will never see the stars again- at least, from the angle that they once could.

It isn’t possible, surely, to tell where his people went after the planet was ripped apart. Where, exactly, in the stars they were- they _are_ \- located.

Perhaps, even though it’s illogical, some of them may be on Earth.

He resolves to do a search, on that subject, in the morning, but before he can determine the method, Kara’s landing on the roof, and sits beside him.

“Hey.” She says. “I saw you up here- you’ve been sitting here for a while, huh?”

“I have.” He admits. “Letting something… sink in, you might say.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

His voice is barely above a whisper, as he says, “Colu is gone.”

Kara stares at him, and takes his hand.

“It was rebuilt, naturally, sometime between this year and my own time.” He says. “But… I did not know that before. And as your sister pointed out, it is rebuilt, and most of my people survived the explosion, so I should not feel so upset…”

“I’m sure she didn’t mean it that way.” She says. “But…”

She pulls him into a hug, leaning towards him with her lips almost touching his ear as she says, “I felt the same way. It’s alright.”

He nods, as she holds his hand, and they sit together in silence.

~

He supposes it’s his responsibility, to bring this information to his people in the future.

 _We have survived the destruction of our planet,_ he imagines himself announcing. _We can conquer anything. We will survive this plague that my ancestor is forcing upon us. Everything will be fine._

But he doesn’t imagine that would do much for their morale, even with the Legion helping out.

Some things, he knows, should be known- even if all one wants is to forget them.


End file.
